You’ve heard of ants on a log? Well we’ve kicked it up a notch and made “Berries on a Branch” and “Beans on a Stalk”! For the “berries”, fill your celery with almond butter and top with blueberries. For the “beans” put some guacamole (we made our own!) in the celery and top with black beans. Delicious! Send us your variations for a chance to win a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card! Cheers!

Happy New Year KBF Friends and Family! Many of us have made resolutions to improve our lives in 2017… exercise is always high on the list as it should be…. not just for vanity’s sake, but cancer prevention as well… check out this great article and… Good job to Mary, one of our founding Kids Club members for getting out there and showing us how to get our exercise on, even in the snow!!!

We hosted a Kids Club Meeting this weekend and know that you are already jealous if you didn’t make it!!! With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, we wanted to give the kids an opportunity to make a healthy (and delicious of course!) dish to go with dinner. We decided on a pumpkin gingerbread cake. The awesome thing about this recipe is that you just put all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix it up, pour into the pan and bake! Easy enough that pretty much ANYONE can make it!

Overall, the bread turned out awesome, and a great time was had by all!!

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup almond butter

2 TBS honey

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

cocoa nibs (optional)
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8×8 pan with coconut oil. Mix all ingredients and pour into pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.So, don’t miss out on the next one!!!! Sign up for the Kid’s Club and be the first to know when the next meeting will happen!!!!

It’s hard to believe that summer vacation is coming to an end! We hope you all enjoyed your break and have some great memories to last a lifetime! We would love to see pictures and video of how you spent your vacation. Did you travel with your family? Did you get out and enjoy the sunshine? Email your pictures and videos to us at info@thekifbrownfoundation.com or upload them here!
In past issues, we have written about the importance of physical activity, so in this issue, we want to discuss the importance of mental activity! With school starting soon, you want to make sure that your brain is ready!! If you are wondering how to get your brain “in-shape”, wonder no more! Here are a few tips for peak brain performance:

FOCUS – avoid multi-tasking – sometimes, trying to work on more than one thing at a time actually creates more problems than it solves! Focus on one task at a time!

TRY NEW THINGS – whether you try a new food or a new way home from school (always make sure your parents know your route!), try something new to expand your horizons.

PLAY GAMES – any kind of game that uses logic, reasoning, or trivia are great ways to build up your brain muscle!

READ MORE – not only does reading stimulate your brain simply by processing the words that you are reading, but it also triggers your imagination and so many other parts of the brain. (source: www.healthline.com)

So, get that brain working and best of luck to each of you in this new school year!!!
Dawn and Sarah

P.S. Thanks so much to our Kif’s Cancer Fighting Kids Club member Ava Rodriguez for sharing her first day of 2nd grade picture!!

Greetings from the Kids Club!!!! We held our first meeting this weekend with a great turnout! We had 12 kids from Idaho and Washington. We were so fortunate to have Dr. Deb Roman as a guest speaker. She is a local osteopathic doctor and talked to the kids about being mindful, and working on taking deep, full breaths and how important that is to your health, both physical and mental. You can learn more about Dr. Roman and what she does by clicking here. If you are interested in learning more about the importance of being mindful, check out this interesting article!

Dr. Deb really set the bar high for guest speakers at future kids club meetings! If you are interested in being a part our next meeting, please email us at info@thekifbrownfoundation.com. We finished with Dr. Deb by doing a little back yard yoga! Even some of the parents joined in!Thanks so much to everyone for coming out for the first meeting – we hope to have many more and would love to hear from you about suggestions for future meetings!